I just bought my first carbon Ar15 it was hard being old school myself and thinking metal is better theory. The thing that sold me is talking to a bushmaster rep by phone and talking to my local FFL dealer and friend about these rifles. The facts about carbon are simple. Its light, its strong, and it wears very well. It is replaceing Allum in the aircraft industrty because it is stronger,lighter, handles stress better for long periods of time and over its life span. Allum gets weaker with age from stresses. With that said allum is fine in Ar15's and has worked perfect for years nothing wrong with it there, but carbon is the new boy on the block and has still got to prove itself which is fine time will tell one way or the other. The main problem the carbon rifles have is the bad ones put out my Para ORD. Lets face it many were junk and never worked right out of the box. It seems the new bushmasters are alot better built and redesigned. Still bushmaster will suffer the bad press from the Para Ord carbon rifles for several years until they are forgotten about.Of the dozen bushmaster carbon rifles my local dealer has sold he says no one has had any problems yet that he has heard.In fact most guys love them. So far my carbon 15 unit seems well build,shoots great and has not had one jamm yet in my limted shooting about 300rds so far. I am not totally sold yet but I am on my way if my carbon gun keeps working and performing like it is doing now. Also one must rember that just because you read that one carbon rifle had a problem out of a 1000 sold that must be taken in context. I am sure out of 1000 Allum Ar-15 rifles there is one or more that have some sort of problem also.